One of my goals on my two day trip to Seattle was to visit as many 80’s-90’s Seattle Grunge music landmarks as possible.

In the interest of time I tried to limit myself to sites between SEATAC airport and the cruise port at Pier 91. That ruled out Kurt Cobain’s house and Memorial, Layne Staley’s condo, and the original Sound Garden. Those sites will have to wait for a future trip

Rehearsal spaces

Black Dog Forge

Black Dog Forge was a blacksmith shop with an alleyway entrance. The basement in Black Dog Forge was rented out as a rehearsal space by various bands including Sound Garden and Pearl Jam.

The Museum of Pop Culture has a room in the Pearl Jam section that is setup to look like the one here. We’ll look at that later. If you try to visit this spot be careful. There’s a guy digging through trash cans behind me.

Screwdriver Bar

Just a couple blocks away from Black Dog Forge is Screwdriver Bar. This is another basement space. This one served as a practice space for Nirvana. It has since been turned into a bar that honors Nirvana and rock music in general. It’s a very cool place with a great selection of local beers.

Venues

OK Hotel

The OK Hotel was a music venue in the 90’s. Today it’s listed as OK Hotel and Apartments. It looks like it might be a homeless shelter or something now. But in 1991, this is where Nirvana first performed “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”

Central Saloon

The Central is Seattle’s oldest saloon. Nirvana played their first Seattle show here. Alice In Chains and Sound Garden also played here in the grunge era. Going back even further, Jimi Hendrix played here.

The Paramount

I came across The Paramount while walking the wrong direction trying to get to Pike Place Market. The Grateful Dead, Queen, Madonna, and numerous other big names have performed at the Paramount over the years. In the grunge era Nirvana and Sound Garden both performed and filmed live footage here at the Paramount.

Showbox

The Showbox is another music venue I stumbled upon on my way to the water front one evening. I know it from Pearl Jam’s Live at the Showbox album.

El Corazon

One venue I didn’t make it to that I wanted to stop by is El Corazon. The only time I was close to it was when I was at the Starbucks Roastery. El Corazon, which was called The Off Ramp at the time, is where Pearl Jam played their first shows. Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Sound Garden and Mudhoney all played there as well. 

The Museum of Pop Culture (MOPOP)

If you’re a fan of grunge music, a stop at the MOPOP is mandatory in Seattle.

Right out in front of MOPOP is a bronze statue of Chris Cornell. Cornell was the lead singer of Sound Garden, Temple of the Dog, and Audio Slave. He committed suicide in his Detroit hotel room after a Sound Garden concert in 2017.

Here are a couple of overview shots of the Nirvana section in MOPOP.

You have to climb higher to get there but there’s an even bigger Pearl Jam section at MOPOP.

This room is set up to look like the practice space Pearl Jam had under Black Dog Forge.

West Point Lighthouse

The last grunge era site I found was during sail away. This is the West Point lighthouse which is featured in the Temple of the Dog “Hunger Strike” video.

 

 

 

 

 

• Seattle